[Fin] Murder U Too - Endgame

[Florien]

Please, please, PLEASE look at the evidence. Especially the obvious truth that the gloves were meant to not be findable, the fact that the gloves were flushed, not merely hidden. That alone should be enough to convince you that the cookie monster did it. There is no reason someone attempting to frame the cookie monster would plant fake evidence within something that that same person would think destroyed beyond retrievability.

Kellensea just sounds exasperated, she clearly can't believe she still has to argue this point.

[wahoothis]

Ranma walked off to the kitchen, looking at his bandaged fists. He didn't really have anything to clean them with at the moment, since he didn't know if the Medbay contained the proper equipment for disinfecting wounds. And he didn't want to go on a wild goose chase searching for them at the moment. So for the time being, he places a kettle with some water in it on the stove. Unfortunately for him, Bow was most likely still in the kitchen so he couldn't exactly put his hands under cold water for the moment. For now, he leaves the kettle boiling the water. If anyone asks, he'll simply say he's making tea. But there were some questions on his mind. "Hey host, few questions for you. First, what happens if there's an accomplice in murders?" He quickly shoots Kellensea a "I'm not saying you are, I'm just bringing up possibility for future scenarios" sneer. "Does the accomplice get anything out of helping anyone? And another thing, what if there's two killers?" The black pony-tailed martial artist asked, mostly to kill time. "One more question. What happens if we try to force a tie of the votes?"

[wingedcatgirl]

I thought I already said this, but I'll say it again: Accomplices get nothing. Only the one who takes an innocent life with their own hands can escape, if they get away with it. And if you force a tie... well, I've got probably more contingencies for that than I need, when ignoring the murderer's vote covers almost every scenario that will actually happen. I tilt my head in thought. But hm, that almost feels too exploitable. Well, we'll call this a test run.

[Florien]

Kellensea slouches in her chair, fidgets around frequently, and scratches little designs into the table with one of her multitude of daggers. She's quite clearly sinking into boredom.

So, ye who have not brought a vote forth, speak thine minds and issue a vote! Preferably for the Cookie Monster, if you're into killing guilty people. If you're into murdering the innocent to no benefit, well, there's always Kai. And... hm. Yeah, that's about all I can say on the matter for now. All things considered, I'd like to get this trial resolved so I can go back to holding out in the office, keeping it cold, awaiting your attempts on my life which will, one way or another, probably arrive. But yeah. Either three of you need to come to your senses, or the three holdouts on voting need to vote correctly, or some combination of those. Because as it is now, we're sort of at an impasse, and as much as I'd like to leave, I'm not exactly interested in voting off Kai out of sheer spite towards how long this has gone on yet.

Then, she has an idea while carving up the table.

Hey, host person, so, we can all understand one another's auditory language despite not actually speaking one another's language, right? Is writing exempt from that? Say, I wrote something in my native language, would people be able to read that if they didn't know how to read my language? And if so, does that apply to ciphers? Hell, what if I spoke in, say, a coded language, would people be able to clearly grasp the meaning without knowing the code? Or is whatever demiplanar shit you're pulling here more specific than that?

While talking, she's scratching "I hate all of you" into the table in her language.

[wingedcatgirl]

Intent matters. If you intend it to be understood, it will be understood. If you intend it to be secret, it will be secret - though possible to decipher, depending on how much work you put in to that end.

[wahoothis]

"Well excuuuuuuse me princess." Ranma said to the host circling his hand in a light motion. "It was a bit hard to hear when people were talking over one another." That and he doesn't really give a care enough to listen to whatever the host said. . . Which is probably a bad idea since he himself was used as an example not to mess with them. His eyes catch Kellensea scratching up the table. "Ah yes, write a bunch of chicken scratch in their stuff. That'll show them." He said with a deadpan expression. He doesn't even know what a cipher is, so that looks entirely like a bunch of scratching to him.

[Florien]

Hm? Oh, no, I always do this. Scratch things up, I mean. In the gaps between violence and diplomacy and intimidation and the fun parts of adventuring. Though as you may have figured out, I'm not my group's diplomat. Not for either of my groups. It was Sauthaiss for the first one, and uhh... I forget who I have in charge of that for my current one. It's not me. Point is, I'm not doing this out of spite. Well, maybe a little out of spite, seeing as I'm complaining at all of you in the text part. Especially those of you who are refusing to look at the obvious part of the evidence, which I brought up before and can bring up again, if so inclined or asked. Or you could just remember what I said. Twice. Maybe three times. Again, we could have been done a while ago.

She then takes the crown off of her kettle hat and starts spinning it around her wrist. After a while, she puts it back on, and goes back to scratching designs into the table, which is quickly becoming a huge network of scratch marks around where she's sitting.

[wahoothis]

"Well some of us wanted to be sure before we possibly kill someone innocent. Like Alexis. She kept mentioning someone innocent was executed because of some hairs." Not gonna question the event, just gonna assume it's something like that Amazon village he "met" Shampoo at. "Besides, we're almost done with this. You don't need to keep coming back to it again and again." Ranma was a bit worried about Kai getting the most votes so far, since he could be innocent. That, and he really doesn't want to uphold his end of his "bet" with Kel, since he doesn't really have anything other than the gi he has on, and the dragon whisker tying his ponytail together.

[Kennifer]

"At least there wasn't as much deliberating then. I was one of those who acted in haste, and I've regretted it since."

Alexis sighs. She's not going to say anything about Kellensea scratching up the table, or repeating herself ad infinitum, or whatever. If the lady wants to make enemies, that's her problem. Besides, she figured the host could probably just... fix the table if he wanted, couldn't he?

[wingedcatgirl]

Are we at a deadlock? Am I going to need to take action?

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

Yeah... We might need to hurry this up...

After considering the evidence, Monika finally decided to....

/Vote Kai

[Florien]

Deadlock. Deadlock. Wait a minute. Idea.

Kellensea turns to Alexis.

I have a way you can contribute without any blood on your hands. Vote for cookie monster now, and we declare deadlock. I believe the host said the murderer vote is ignored in the case of a tie, that means that Kai, who voted for cookie monster, and cookie monster, who voted for Kai, one of their votes will be ignored. The correct person will be executed. But this requires you to vote for the cookie monster. Will you do that, if not for me, for reduction of blood on your hands?

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

Er...

Monika quickly veers off and decides to
...
/Unvote

[wingedcatgirl]

Votes (7 to convict or skip)
Cookie Monster - Kellensea, Kai, Haruka, Ranma
Kai - Krabs, Cookie Monster, Bow, Rosa, Bakugo, Monika

[Kennifer]

Alexis nods.

"Okay. May... whoever's out there forgive me if I'm wrong..."

/vote Cookie Monster

[wingedcatgirl]

Votes (7 to convict or skip)
Cookie Monster - Kellensea, Kai, Haruka, Ranma, Alexis
Kai - Krabs, Cookie Monster, Bow, Rosa, Bakugo

But of course now we're not tied. Does Komaru have any input?

(and then someone very belatedly notices that Monika unvoted and updates this post to match and let's not worry too hard about how that works IC)

[Florien]

Excellent. Hey, host person! We're totally deadlocked at five to five! Oh no whatever shall we do?!

Kellensea very dramatically pretends to swoon.

I guess you'll just have to ignore the murderer's vote as you said earlier! Oh, alas, that it came down to this! Alack! Oh Woe!

After the performative sorrow, Kellensea eagerly awaits the results.

[wahoothis]

Ranma sees what she's trying to do. And as much as he doesn't want to. . . "Hark. Looks like we'll have to abstain the killer's vote then. What a shame this must come to, but it is what it is, it seems." Totally convincing acting. . . probably.

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

... Actually...

/Revote Kai

[Huney]

"..."

Komaru has no idea how to feel right now. She feels like her brain's been frozen over. Not a single thought can get in, not a single thought can get out. What just... happened? She takes a deep breath, and...

/vote Cookie Monster

[wahoothis]

Ranma took a deep breath. It's tied. . . So this should be it, right? The final chance to see who's the killer. The ultimatum of whether he or Kellensea was correct. And the chooser of who wins the bet between him and Kel.

[Billy5545]

Meanwhile, Rosa watches the whole trial with a tensed feeling. She hopes that her choice of Kai as the murderer is right, and that she doesn't end up repeating her mistakes at Peterheim High.

[Florien]

Kellensea has grabbed a handful of artificial sweetener packets and is slitting them open. Whether she's just wasting them or intending to eat them is unclear. What is clear is that she's not paying much attention to the trial right now. After getting through a handful of sweetener packets, she starts breaking stirring sticks between her fingers. Then, she moves on to folding napkins into floppy gliders, and tearing others into smaller and smaller squares. Then, she brushes the sweetener into a cup and starts piling up the debris in the middle of her region of the table, which is rapidly becoming a disaster zone of damage and chaos, with etched phrases in many languages, overheard fragments of spells, angular stick figure drawings, and other things contributing to the mess. She briefly looks up.

Votes still tied? Good. Well, we'll see. Anyway... tell me when the execution happens.

Then she gets back to creating an ever worse mess on her section of the table.

[artsyGeek]

Haruka is now whispering to herself. "Please let it be Cookie Monster please let it be Cookie Monster-"

[wahoothis]

Ranma was silently thinking to himself. "Don't let Kellensea be right. Don't let Kellensea be right. I don't want to lose. . . whatever the hell she's taking from me.